The Housing Project Poltergeist in Newark

At his third visit to the Clark’s home, Roll, to his surprise, has a small bottle from an end table fly off the table and hit Dr. Roll on the head. Including a total of 59 psychokinetic incidents, and lasting over nine months, multiple objects were reported to fly around the home when the Clark’s child Ernie was present.

Events included coffee cups falling one by one off of a mug rack, bottles in the bathroom falling and breaking, a cologne bottle flying from the bathroom and into the living room. Witnesses report the cologne bottle turning in mid-air to fly into the living room from the hallway. Police were unable to account for the reports. When confronted by drunks at the front door, wanting to see the boy who had objects fly around him, a crockery lamp from the living room moved and crashed to the floor.

Ultimately, this case was determined to be fraudulent by Dr. Roll. Many of the events involved conditions where the child, Ernie, could have simply thrown the objects. Ernie was caught smuggling objects out of the house. At one point money was disappearing and reappearing. Events never occurred when Ernie was watched closely. Thus, in this instance, the poltergeist case was debunked.

The Seaford Long Island Disturbances

One of William Roll’s first investigations, the Herrmann’s reported that their two children, Lucille and James, reported noises of bottles popping their caps. Holy water uncapped and spilled in the house. A doll was found with its legs broken. Roll was called in to investigate these claims. The first interview with a patrolman reported the same bottle popping phenomena, while the officer was with the entire family.

In all, 67 psychokinetic events were recorded, where 40 of the incidents involved the movement of the same 16 objects. A male figurine was thrown twice at a visiting secretary, breaking in the process. 23 separate bottle poppings occurred. Roll himself was present when a bleach bottle popped its top off on its own. At one point, a new coffee table was found turned upside down.

Roll personally investigated the scene for ten days. Engineers and other experts were called in to examine for fraud and magic trickery. The family, horrified, actually spent several days away from the home. To this day neither the police, experts, or Roll himself believe the events were hoaxed.

Paranormal Experience or Reality Impaired?

Harvey Irwin, an Australian psychologist, has been studying belief in the paranormal for many years. One of his many research studies examines how belief in the paranormal predicts to a tendency to imagine physical sensations or other senses. Irwin’s results show that various types of paranormal belief contribute as much as 36% towards this imagination tendency.

On examination, people with belief in witchcraft have the highest relationship to imaginary sensation, followed by traditional paranormal beliefs and new age philosophy. Beliefs that only predicted about 10% of this imagination tendency were superstition, belief in aliens, and religious belief.

Do these findings mean that all people who have paranormal happenings imagined their experience? Not necessarily. Irwin goes on to explain that people who have a deficit in reality testing (imaginary tendencies) may have an experience and leap to the conclusion that the experience was paranormal. He also states that people with paranormal beliefs represent a wide and different body of people. Thus, his findings may not apply to everyone. Irwin concludes that critical thinking and reasoning should be used to analyze any type of paranormal event.

Reference

Irwin, J. (2004). Reality testing and the formation of paranormal beliefs: A Constructive replication. Journal for the Society of Psychical Research, 68, 143-152.